Chipatala Cha Pa Foni (CCPF) Project

Chipatala cha pa Foni (CCPF) was started to help reduce health facility workloads, save patients' time and transportation costs, and provide women with greater control and opportunity to interact with the health system without having to travel to a health facility. As a result, the approach increases access to critical antenatal and postnatal care information, as well as appropriate home and facility-based care for pregnant women and children.

Chipatala cha pa Foni is a hotline currently based at the Balaka District Hospital, but will be transitioning to Lilongwe, under the guidance of the Ministry of Health. Hotline staff are trained using Ministry of Health clinical-decision protocols and offer callers health information and encourage referrals. Mobile phone users can also enroll in a service providing automated and personalised tips and reminders for pregnant women, guardians of young children, and women of childbearing age. The mobile service sends reminders to clients' phones for ante-natal and post-natal care visits.

The project also includes a community outreach, education, and mobilisation component undertaken by various partners. In the original pilot areas, community volunteers mobilised users to ensure access to services for those without phones. They also conducted community outreach events to improve community understanding of the services and programmes. This included collaborating with and educating traditional leaders and other community influencers about the programme to encourage the use of the hotline.

Along with supporting family and home-based management of common health conditions in women and children, this pilot programme approach also "fosters more positive interactions with the formal health system. These are mediating factors in achieving the highest possible coverage of life-saving interventions for women, infants and children in Malawi."

The pilot project ran from 2011 to 2013. It has since been merged with local service provider Airtel's dial-a-doc service. As a result the programme has scaled up to 8 districts through partner organisations, expanded scope of service to all medical issues, and will expand nationally and be handed over to the Ministry of Health by the end of 2017.

Maternal, newborn, nutrition, and child health

According to project reports an external evaluation showed that "Chipatala Cha Pa Foni increased the use of home-based and facility-based practices among women, including use of a bed net during pregnancy, attending the recommended four antenatal care (ANC) appointments, starting ANC during first trimester, giving birth in a facility, and receiving a post-natal checkup within 2 days of birth. Home-based practices for children, including exclusive breastfeeding until six months of age, use of bed nets, and use of oral rehydration salts to treat diarrhea also increased."

The Chipatala cha pa Foni project was developed after Innovations for MNCH ran a nationwide campaign, "Share an Idea, Save a Life". Over 6000 ideas were generated, CCPF one of them and was chosen for implementation.